Since epoxy groups have superior reactivity, various types of epoxy group-containing polymers, which are prepared by introducing epoxy groups into various types of polymer, have been developed. In the process of epoxidizing an olefin with a peroxide or the like to introduce an epoxy group, however, the resulting polymer is negatively affected by oxidation, and it is disadvantageously difficult to selectively introduce an epoxy group into the end of a polymer and to make it polyfunctional. Moreover, in some production processes, byproducts must be removed. In particular, a process disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 3-56505, which is a technique of the foregoing processes, and the structure of the resulting epoxy group-containing polymers may cause oxidation degradation as mentioned above, or cause an adverse effect to reactivity due to the steric hindrance around the epoxy group of the resulting polymer. Thus, epoxy group-containing polymers produced by such known processes do not necessarily have satisfactory physical properties for various applications.
It is broadly known that organic polymers each have their own characteristics. In particular, saturated hydrocarbon polymers whose main chain skeleton comprises a polymer selected from the group consisting of polyisobutylene, hydrogenated polyisoprene, hydrogenated polybutadiene, and their copolymers have high weather resistance, high heat resistance, low gas permeability, superior flexibility, and other characteristics. On the other hand, oxyalkylene polymers have superior compatibility with other polymers, flexibility, and advantageous low-temperature characteristics.
Various types of polymers have been developed which are prepared by introducing hydrolyzable groups, unsaturated groups, hydrosilyl groups, or the like into the ends of the saturated hydrocarbon polymers or the oxyalkylene polymers. However, these polymers disadvantageously require water and heating for being cured, and are also disadvantageous in storage stability.
Accordingly, polymers prepared by selectively introducing epoxy groups into the ends of various types of organic polymer have been highly demanded, and a simple production process has also been desired which prevents the polymers from deteriorating due to the introduction of the epoxy groups and which does not require purification and other steps in association with generation of byproducts.